R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

• Regional Potpourri

PUNJAB

Batala
CONDEMNED: The Urban Estate Batala Welfare Association has condemned the wrong planning by the PWD (B&R) to put effluents of various colonies at nearby villages. The Assistant Chief Administrator of PUDA, Mr Vikas Garg, visited the site on Saturday and assured the members of the association that infrastructure of the colony would be kept intact.

KHARAR
Remanded: A local court on Saturday remanded two persons in six-day judicial custody each in connection with the rape of a minor at Nayagaon in Mohali two years ago. Ram Singh and Shyam Lal of Nayagaon village were produced before the subdivisional court after the expiry of their one-day police remand. 

SHO remanded: A local court on Saturday remanded an SHO and his gunman, arrested on bribery charges, to 11-day judicial custody. Jasvir Singh, posted at Mehna, Moga, and constable Jaswinder were arrested by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau on July 29 for allegedly accepting Rs 15,000 from the relatives of a youth caught with opium. A sum of Rs 70,000 was also recovered from the SHO’s residence in Moga.

Vehicle thieves: The two vehicle thieves’ who were arrested by the Kharar police on Saturday, were remanded in two-day police custody by a local on Sunday. Vikas of Mohali and Gurdeep of Bassi Pathana were arrested on the charge of stealing vehicles. A stolen car and a scooter were recovered from them. — TNS

Ludhiana
CONDEMNED: The Handicapped Institution Employees Federation, Punjab, condemned the brutality carried out by the administration on Honda employees. It expressed its sympathy towards the injured and their families and said it was an exploitation of human rights.

VANAMAHOTSAVA: On behalf of the District Congress Committee SC/ ST cell, under the leadership of the Senior Vice-President, Dr Ajit Singh, vanamahotsava was celebrated at Cheema Chowk, Industrial Area A. Councillor Malkiat Kaur planted saplings.

CAREER GUIDANCE: A two-month career guidance programme, started by Lovely Institutes in Ghumar Mandi, concluded here yesterday. Mr Ashok Mittal, president of the institute, said students were made aware of the new technical courses and new career avenues. More than 1,000 students gained from the programme.

Pathankot
YOGA CAMP: The Pathankot Rotary Club here on Saturday organised a yoga camp under the supervision of Mr Satinder Walia and Dr Manish Aggarwal, president and secretary respectively, of the club. Rotarian Mr B.L. Gupta emphasised the need of ‘pranayam’ to release the stress in the daily life.

MARCH: Students of Jodhamal Kuthiala International School here on Saturday hold a march in a drive to keep the city clean. The students were holding banners and raised slogans to keep the city clean, to stop plastic bags, passed from the bazaars of the town. The students were accompanied members of the Inner Wheel Club, Damtal.

WRESTLING PANEL: The Vishal Dangal Wrestling Committee, Samrala, will hold the regular annual All-India Wrestling Championship at Bharthala road, Samrala, on August 13, according to Mr Yashpal Sharma, press secretary of the committee here on Saturday. Eye specialist Ramesh of Ludhiana, Punjabi writer Hamdardveer Nausheharvi, noted wrestler Jela Bijlipuria and kabaddi player Dharamjit Dhanna will be honoured.

CHANDIGARH

Meeting: The birthdays of 48 members were celebrated at the monthly meeting of the Senior Citizens Council held here on Sunday. Dr Avinash Jolly delivered a talk on the problems of old age. The SHO of the Sector 39 police station, Mr Nanha Ram, assured all help to the senior citizens, Dr Sukhdev Singh, council president, said.

MOHALI
Opposed: Members of the Welfare Action Committee, Phase VI, here have opposed the hike in water and sewerage charges. Secretary of the committee R.C. Jhingan said the Municipal Council should first ensure proper and regulated water supply to the consumers. As regards sewerage, there was no justification in increasing the rates since no service was provided to maintain the system, he added. 

PANCHKULA
Course: A two-day course in continuing dental education programme concluded at Dentis Tree here on Sunday. The course was moderated by oral surgeon Vimal Kalia. It dealt with dental implant for general practitioner. 

Car loan mela: A car loan mela will be organised by State Bank of Patiala at Kalka on Tuesday. Mr K.K. Chattopadhayay, Deputy General Manager of the bank, will inaugurate the mela.

HARYANA

Fatehabad
SENTENCED: The Civil Judge (Senior Division), Mr S.K. Garg, on Saturday sentenced a person to one-month imprisonment for disobeying the orders of the court issued in a civil suit. Mr Ram Phal, a resident of Dhani Dulet village, had purchased a piece of land from Subhash of the same village. But Subhash refused to execute the sale deed in favour of Mr Ram Phal whereupon the latter filed a civil suit against Subhash. The then judge, Mr R.N. Bharati, decreed the suit in favour of Mr Ram Phal, and directed Subhash to execute the sale deed in favour of the purchaser. But, Subhash, instead, mortgaged the property with a bank to obtain a loan.

Kaithal
INAUGURATED: A homoeopathic dispensary was inaugurated at the local Rotary Club Library by social worker Oudh Behari here on Sunday. Mr Mukesh Nirwani, president, Rotary Club, Mr Narinder Gupta, secretary, Ms Shalini, president, Innerwheel Club, Mr Gaurav, president, Rotract Club, and a large number of members of all the three clubs were present on this occasion. Mr Nirwani said that the project, known as shanti seva charitable homoeopathic clinic, would be run jointly by the Rotary Club with the financial help provided by Mr Oudh Behari.

Kurukshetra
ELECTED: The following have been elected as office-bearers of the governing body of Indira Gandhi National College, Ladwa (Kurukshetra): Mr Pawan Garg — president; Mr Harjoginder Singh — vice-president; Mr Parveen Kumar Gupta — general secretary; and Mr Ved Parkash — treasurer.

SAPLINGS: Under its vanamahotsava programme organised by the Rotary Kurukshetra, about 500 saplings were planted on the premises of Government Middle School, Aalampur, Government Middle School, Salaarpur and Baba Balak Siddh Nath Public School, Salaarpur, 4 km from here, on Saturday. The programme was inaugurated jointly by both Ms Uma Sudha, chairman, Municipal Council, Thanesar, and Mr Subhash Sudha, former chairman, Municipal Council, Thanesar, by planting saplings.

Sonepat
JOTMAHOTSAVA: The Sonepat Mahavir Dal is celebrating its silver jubilee Jotmahotsava on August 14 at Hardwar. Thousands of devotees from Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Chandigarh, Delhi and Sonepat will take part in this mahotsava which is an annual feature.

BAIL JUMPER: The Sadar police on Sunday claimed to have arrested a bail jumper in connection with the case already pending against him in the court. The arrested person was identified as Nathu Ram, a resident of Kami village. He had been arrested in connection with a case of assault, but was released on bail from the court. Thereafter, he did not turn up in the court on the dates of hearing.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Bilaspur
FOREST AREA PLAN: Himachal Forest, Youth Services and Sports Minister Ramlal Thakur has declared that Rs 62 crore is being spent on the forest area improvement plan in the state, while Rs 21.80 crore has been received from the Centre under the national afforestation scheme which is being implemented through forest development agencies of villagers. Inaugurating 56th vanamahotsava at Parnali on Bandla Hill, near here, on Saturday the Forest Minister said that the Forest Department was planting 10 lakh saplings in 1,186 hectares in Bilaspur district during the current financial year.

Dharamsala
LECTURE: The General Officer Commanding of 9 Corps, Lieut-Gen Anup Singh Jamwal, delivered a lecture on “Development of leadership qualities” to the students of Government Degree College here on Saturday. He said self-motivation was such a weapon which helped in developing leadership qualities, and management of the present environment and exploitation of resources made an individual to emerge as a better leader than others.

CONDEMNED: Condemning the decision of the Dr Rajendra Prasad Zonal Hospital authorities to impose entry charges and parking fee, the district unit of the BJP here on Saturday threatened to launch an agitation if the decision was not withdrawn immediately. Former MLA Kishan Kapoor and Mr Bhim Singh Guleria, secretary of the BJP’s district unit, said patients who come to government hospital for treatment had economically week background and this decision would put unnecessary financial burden on them.

REGIONAL POTPOURRI

One man’s flood is another man’s wood

One person’s pain can be another one’s gain. This has been quite evident in the flood-hit areas of Himachal Pradesh, where the wood swept along by the swollen waters is proving useful to villagers.

During the recent floods in the Mandi area, a large number of daredevil villagers got busy in netting wood from the gushing waters of the Beas.

Meena, a resident of Saunla village, 18 km from Mandi, says it is after many years that the river has brought them some ‘fortune’.

“We are collecting the wood for our personal consumption. This is an annual phenomenon, but this year the flood has brought a good number of logs. The collection will keep our hearth burning, at least for two months during winter,” she adds.

“The flood has destroyed many houses but it is also providing us with material for constructing new houses. What’s the harm in collecting nature’s bounty?” reasons Briku Devi (60), another villager. The flood water has brought large pieces of wood from the houses that were swept away.

Hansa Kumari (8), who has been helping her parents in carrying wood from the riverbed, says there is no harm in bunking school for this task. For, this too is an important lesson. To learn the tricks of netting logs from her parents.

However, this is more like a community effort. At the end of the day, the villagers distribute the wood among themselves.

Mobilising donors

The Blood Donors Council (BDC), Nawanshahr, has been playing a pioneering role in bringing this otherwise sleepy town on the national map of the voluntary blood donation movement. With the efforts of the BDC, more than 19 per cent of the residents of Nawanshahr subdivision have become regular blood donors.

A brainchild of Gurinder Singh Toor and Pushap Raj Kalia, it came into being in 1986. To start with, they addressed rallies of college students and organised blood camps to motivate them. In due course of time, a number of other people, like Capt Inderjit Sareen, Sulakshan Sareen, Parvesh Kumar, Jaspal Gidda and Dr Vishav Mohini, joined them. At present, the council has 54 life members and 170 registered motivators.

As part of the motivation drive, the council has not only been organising blood camps on auspicious occasions like birthdays, gurpurbs and melas etc, but also at wedding ceremonies (in which the marriage party, including the bridegroom and bride, donate blood) and at cremation ceremonies.

The BDC has reportedly set a national record by organising a couples’ blood donation camp in which as many as 101 couples donated blood in a single day.

Caring for special kids

Dr Kanta Mani Gupta, a lecturer in zoology at a Hisar college, had to face many problems in bringing up her daughter, a special child. She had to visit Rohtak quite often, as that was the nearest town where some professional help was available. That she had to look after her two sons simultaneously made her task even tougher.

This led her to set up a school for differently abled children herself. And her dream was realised with the formation of Saakaar, which has been catering to the needs of special kids for the past 13 years.

“They may not be as capable as other children, but differently-abled kids are also God’s creation and belong to us,” she maintains.

The school, which is being run by the Hisar Welfare Society for the Mentally Handicapped, provides training to the parents of special kids, besides imparting education to these children for a nominal fee.

The society is headed by Sukhdev Aggarwal, a leading local lawyer and social activist. Saakaar is being run with the help of donations from people.

Dr Gupta, however, laments that most parents of differently abled kids do not send their wards to school. “In the first place, they are not willing to admit that there is some problem with their kids. Then, they lack interest in getting such children educated and hardly make any efforts in this direction,” she observes.

Still, undeterred by the indifferent attitude of the parents, Dr Gupta is firm in her resolve to shoulder some responsibility towards this less privileged section of society.

—— Contributed by Vishal Gulati, Parmod Bharti and Sunit Dhawan